General Awareness

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - November 2019

Nov 2019

Aug 12, 2020

Dwarf Planet Ceres Not Barren

The dwarf planet Ceres, which lies in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, is not a barren space rock as earlier believed. New data from NASA's Dawn spacecraft have shown that it is a water-rich world.
After analysing data collected near the end of the mission, scientists determined that beneath the surface of Ceres, there could be a deep reservoir of brine, or salt-enriched water which is about 40 km deep and hundreds of miles wide.
Ceres makes up almost a third of the asteroid belt's total mass, but it is still far smaller than Earth's Moon. The Dawn spacecraft arrived at Ceres in 2015.
Long before Dawn arrived at Ceres, scientists had noticed diffuse bright regions with telescopes, but their nature was unknown.
By the time the mission ended in October 2018, the orbiter had dipped to less than 35 km above the surface, revealing crisp details of the mysterious bright regions Ceres had become known for.

Aug 10, 2020

IIT Guwahati, in Collaboration with Imperial College London, Develops Nanoparticle 'Meta-grid'

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati, India, and Imperial College London, United Kingdom, have developed nanoparticles called the 'meta-grid' or 'metamaterial grid' that makes the light-emitting diodes (LED) brighter, energy-efficient and durable.
It was jointly developed by Dr. Debabrata Sikdar, assistant professor at IIT Guwahati along with Prof. Sir John B. Pendry and Prof. Alexei A. Kornyshev from Imperial College London.
The findings have been recently published in Light: Science and Application journal of the Nature Publishing Group. The theoretical models, developed by Dr. Sikdar, find out the optimal conditions for the design of the nanoparticle 'meta-grid' layer.
Meta-grid is a specifically patterned array of nanoparticles acting as metamaterials and it is capable of exhibiting extraordinary optical properties.

Aug 03, 2020

SpaceX Brings NASA Crew Back to Earth

Two NASA astronauts returned to Earth in a dramatic, retro-style splashdown, their capsule parachuting into the Gulf of Mexico to close out an unprecedented test flight by Elon Musk's SpaceX company.
It was the first splashdown by US astronauts in 45 years, with the first commercially built and operated spacecraft to carry people to and from orbit. The return clears the way for another SpaceX crew launch as early as next month and possible tourist flights next year.
Test pilots Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken arrived back on Earth in their SpaceX Dragon capsule named Endeavour, less than a day after departing the International Space Station and two months after blasting off from Florida.

Aug 02, 2020

NASA Astronauts Riding SpaceX Capsule Poised for Return

The two NASA astronauts who rode to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX's new Crew Dragon are heading home for a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, capping a two-month voyage in space that marked NASA's first crewed mission from home soil in nine years.
Crew Dragon "Endeavor" decoupled from the orbital station carrying U.S. astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley— the first procedure of its kind in a privately built space capsule.
It will be the first splashdown for astronauts in 45 years. The last time was following the joint US-Soviet mission in 1975 known as Apollo-Soyuz.
Upon a successful splashdown, the spacecraft will have completed its final key test to prove it can transport astronauts to and from space — a task SpaceX has accomplished dozens of times with its cargo-only capsule but never before with humans aboard.

Aug 01, 2020

European Sentinel Satellites to Map Global CO2 Emissions

German manufacturer OHB-System signed a €445m (£400m) contract to begin construction of a satellite network to monitor carbon dioxide.
The CO2M constellation will consist in the first instance of two spacecraft, but there is an option for a third.
The platforms will track the greenhouse gas across the globe, helping nations assess the scale of their emissions.
Under the Paris climate accord, countries must compile CO2 inventories. CO2M will provide supporting data.
The aim is to launch the OHB spacecraft in 2025 so they can inform the international stocktake that will report in 2028.
CO2M falls under the European Union's Copernicus Earth observation programme. This flies a series of satellite sensors called Sentinels, which monitor everything from damage wrought by earthquakes to the health of staple food crops.

China Celebrates Completion of BeiDou Satellite System that Could Rival the US' GPS

China is celebrating the completion of its BeiDou Navigation Satellite System that could rival the U.S. Global Positioning System and significantly boost China's security and geopolitical clout.
President Xi Jinping, the leader of the ruling Communist Party and the People's Liberation Army, officially commissioned the system Friday at a ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
That followed a declaration that the 55th and final geostationary satellite in the constellation launched June 23 was operating after having completed all tests.
The satellite is part of the third iteration of the BeiDou system known as BDS-3, which began providing navigation services in 2018 to countries taking part in China's sprawling "Belt and Road" infrastructure initiative along with others.

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